Clyde Peterson’s ‘Torrey Pines’ wins honorable mention for Best Animated Feature; Ayce Kartal’s ‘Wicked Girl’ wins Cartoon Network Award for Best Narrative Short Animation.
Nikita Diakur’s ‘Ugly’ wins the Nelvana Grand Prize for Independent Short Animation at OIAF 2017.
OTTAWA -- The Ottawa International Animation Festival, North America’s leading animation film festival, announced the winners of its 2017 Official Competition today at an awards ceremony held at Saint Brigid’s Centre for the Arts. The OIAF received a total of 1,992 entries and selected 105 short films and five feature films from 85 different countries.
The Nelvana Grand Prize for Independent Short went to Nikita Diakur’s Ugly, a simulated short film about two beings trying to find peace in a dystopic neighborhood. The Grand Prize for Features went to the surrealist romantic comedy Night Is Short, Walk on Girl, directed by Masaaki Yuasa. Yuasa made OIAF history this year by becoming the first filmmaker to have two nominations in the features category, with his film Lu Over the Wall also in competition.
This year’s Short, Feature and Young Audiences Competition screenings were judged by three official juries. The Competition Short Jury featured illustrator, art and animation director Janice Nadeau (Canada), Marta Pajek (Poland), and Theodore Ushev (Bulgaria/Canada), animator and winner of last year’s Cartoon Network Award for Best Narrative Short Animation (Blind Vaysha). The Competition Feature Jury comprised of the award-winning director and writer of Child Dream, Christophe Gérard (France), Four Faces of the Moon director Amanda Strong (Canada) and Waking Life animation director Bob Sabiston (USA). The third jury is comprised of Ottawa-area children between the ages of 8 and 12 who judged the Young Audiences: Preschool and Ages 6-12 Competitions. In addition, we also had members of the Canadian media pick a winner for our Media prize, with Di Golding, Ramin S. Khanjani, and Pat Mullen awarding The Tesla World Light.
A selection of the Festival’s award-winning films will be screened on Sunday, September 25 at 7:00 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. in the Best of OIAF 17 screening at the ByTowne Cinema (325 Rideau Street). Tickets are available online at www.animationfestival.ca and will be sold at the Box Office.
OIAF 2017 AWARDS
Nelvana Grand Prize for Independent Short Animation
UGLY
Nikita Diakur
Germany
2017
From the Jury: “An apocalyptic and heartwarming vision of deconstructive reality.”
Grand Prize for Best Animated Feature
YORUWA MIJIKASHI ARUKEYO OTOME (NIGHT IS SHORT, WALK ON GIRL)
Masaaki Yuasa
Japan
2017
From the Jury: “Masaaki Yuasa’s manic masterpiece is unexpected and delightful from beginning to end.” “This inventive and daring film takes animation storytelling to another level.”
Honorable Mention
TORREY PINES, Clyde Peterson (USA)
From the Jury: “The film brings a real freshness to the art of paper cut out animation. Without a spoken word, Clyde Peterson gives a vivid and humorous representation of what it was like to question ones gender identity in the 90s.”
CATEGORY AWARDS
Cartoon Network Award for Best Narrative Short Animation
KÖTÜ KIZ (WICKED GIRL)
Ayce Kartal
Turkey
2016
From the Jury: “[An] unforgiven ode to resilience.”
Award for Best Non-Narrative Animation
Any Road
Boris Labbe
France
2016
From the Jury: “Familiarity versus strangeness.”
Award for Best Student Animation
END OF RECORDING
Lukas Conway, Stefan Jaroszonek & Olivier Sommelet
2016
From the Jury: “[A] disturbing and itching line.”
Award for Best Commissioned Animation
MARK LOTTERMAN “HAPPY”
Alice Saey
Netherlands, France
2017
From the Jury: “Hypnotizing choreography.”
Award for Best Animated Film or Series for Young Audiences – Preschool
DER KLEINE VOGEL UND DIE RAUPE (THE LITTLE BIRD AND THE CATERPILLAR)
Lena von Döhren
Switzerland
2017
Honorable Mentions
- KONIGIRI-KUN UNDOKAI (KONIGIRI-KUN KITCHEN SPORTS DAY), Mari Miyazawa (Japan)
- ISLAND, Max Mörtl & Robert Löbel (Germany)
- THE CLOUD AND THE WHALE, Alyona Tomilova (Russia)
- GEORGE & PAUL ‘AFL EVERING: SLAAPWANDELEN’ (GEORGE & PAUL ‘EPISODE: SLEEPWALKING’), Erik Verkerk & Joost van den Bosch
Award for Best Animated Film or Series for Young Audiences – Ages 6-12
MOUNTAIN OF SGAANA
Christopher Auchter
Canada
2017
Honorable Mentions
- LA LICORNE (THE UNICORN), Rémi Durin (France, Belgium)
- REGULAR SHOW “MEET THE SEER” JG Quintel (USA)
CRAFT AWARDS
Award for Best Script
MANIVALD
Chintis Lundgren
Canada, Croatia, Estonia
Narrative Short
2017
Award for Best Design
SPECTACLE OF THE REAL
Buck Design, Orion Tait,
Thomas Schmid & Daniel Oeffinger
USA
Commissioned Animation
2016
Award for Best Animation Technique
TESLA ‘LUMIÉRE MONDIALE’ (THE TESLA WORLD LIGHT)
Matthew Rankin
Canada
Narrative Short Animation
2017
Award for Best Sound
AIRPORT
Michaela Müller
Switzerland, Croatia
Non-narrative Short
2017
OTHER AWARDS
Public Prize
DECORADO
Alberto Vazquez
Spain, France
Narrative Short
2017
Canadian Film Institute Award for Best Canadian Animation
FOUR FACES OF THE MOON
Amanda Strong
Canada
Narrative short
2017
From the Jury: “[A] poetic, passionate, and powerful evocation of Canada’s troubled history”
Honorable Mentions
- INSECT EXPRESS, Emily Pelstring (“[an] inventive experimental approach to animating music”)
- HEDGEHOG’S HOME, Eva Cvijanovic (“marvelous craft and impressive storytelling”)
Award for Canadian Student Animation Film
END OF RECORDING
Lukas Conway, Stefan Jaroszonek & Olivier Sommelet
Concordia
2017
Honorable Mentions
- THE LOST SOUL, Marie-Josée Doutre (Concordia)
- QUARTERS, Airin Budiman (Sheridan)
Media Prize
TESLA ‘LUMIÉRE MONDIALE’ (THE TESLA WORLD LIGHT)
Matthew Rankin
Canada
2017
Narrative Short Animation
From the Jury: “The jury was impressed by the outstanding range of styles and stories among these shorts, but The Tesla World Light stood out with the technical ingenuity, madcap humour, and haunting beauty in Matthew Rankin’s experimental rendition of an obsessed mind.”
Source: Ottawa International Animation Festival
Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.
